Bike Reviews

Many cargo bikes are made for industrial-level hauling, but the Civia Halsted is intended for lighter duties. Think of it as a Ford Ranger, a vehicle that can move a load of soil for backyard landscaping but makes way for the F-450 King Ranch when it's time to pull the horse trailer.

Like the Worksman Low Gravity, the Halsted features a 20-inch front wheel paired with a 26-inch rear wheel, making room up front for a dedicated cargo platform, to which you can mount a basket or strap packages.

The company specializes in urban bikes. The Halsted is a redesign of a classic cycle truck. "We think of it as a family bike," said Civia general manager Burton Avery. "A family could use it to get their stuff where they need to go. It's a bike for people who get a thrill out of doing things themselves and embrace bike culture."

Another aspect of Civia's definition of "family bike" is that every member of a household should be able to ride it. To test that theory we embedded the Halsted with the tallest member of BICYCLING's test staff, at 6-foot-7, and asked him to share the bike with his 5-foot-5 wife, after the family had downsized from two cars to one.

Aside from marveling at the ability to share one bike by simply adjusting the saddle height, both riders appreciated the upright position and reliable nine-speed drivetrain. The smaller rider judged the power of the front disc brake adequate, but her husband says that, when riding with a heavy load, he found the braking only marginal. He also needed time adjust to the handling of the small front wheel, and noted that there was no escaping a "bear in the circus" sensation from riding such a small frame.

Other test riders noticed that the generous platform invites loads larger than the bike can handle--on one trip around town with a 40-pound load on the platform, the bike developed a noticeable shimmy. While controllable, the motion was unnerving. And, because the cargo platform attaches directly to the frame; we found that large packages on the platform impeded the movement of the handlebar, limiting handling.

Even with these concerns, we recommend the Halsted for anyone who wants a utility bike but for whom a large, heavy bike would be burdensome. The Halsted, the least expensive bike in this test, may even be compact and light enough (40 pounds) to carry up stairs, something that can't be said of any other bike on these pages. --A.J. B.